Best Halal Restaurants in Beijing: 10 Local Muslim Food Spots Worth Trying (Segment 1 of 3)
Reposted from the web
Summary: This guide to the best halal restaurants in Beijing keeps the original list of local Muslim food spots, Hui Muslim food, and practical halal dining details.
On the weekend, we had dinner at Kavkaz Ruilin, a long-standing Azerbaijani restaurant on Ritan Upper Street, to enjoy some Russian and Caucasian food. This is a classic former Soviet-style restaurant in Beijing that has been open for over a decade. It mostly serves merchants from Russian-speaking regions who come to Yabaolu to source goods. Its Chinese name used to be Ruilin, but it has been changed to Ruilin.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, many traders (daoye) took green-skinned trains to Beijing and headed straight to Yabaolu to stock up on goods. They brought down jackets, leather shoes, toys, and other small items back home to sell for huge profits. Yabaolu gradually grew from street stalls and tents into Beijing's largest wholesale market for Russian-speaking regions, and more former Soviet-style restaurants opened up on nearby Ritan Upper Street. Over a decade ago, Ritan Upper Street was mainly home to Central Asian and Azerbaijani restaurants, including Uzbek and Kazakh spots.
Over the last decade, Russia's economic decline, the shift of markets to places like Yiwu, Guangzhou, and Suifenhe, and the rise of cross-border e-commerce have caused trade with Russia on Yabaolu to shrink. Yitan Shangjie has gradually become a hub for Uyghur restaurants. Besides Dardanelles and Desert Rose, which focus on Turkish food, the only other Azerbaijani restaurant is Ruilin. For Central Asian food, there is the Turkmenistan restaurant Merv downstairs, which also serves Russian dishes.
At first, Ruilin had dim lighting, making it a good spot for traders to talk business, but many Chinese people were afraid to go inside. In recent years, the lighting at Ruilin has become brighter, but when we visited, there were only Russian-speaking customers, and we did not see any other Chinese people eating there.
We ordered borscht (hongcaitang), pot-stewed lamb (manguan yangrou), chive pancakes (jiucaibing), Azerbaijani pilaf (zhuafan), and grilled vegetables. Their borscht is closer to the Russian style than the one at Merv. Merv's beef soup has a stronger flavor, while their version has a more intense beet taste, which is also quite good.
Summary: This guide to the best halal restaurants in Beijing keeps the original list of local Muslim food spots, Hui Muslim food, and practical halal dining details.
On the weekend, we had dinner at Kavkaz Ruilin, a long-standing Azerbaijani restaurant on Ritan Upper Street, to enjoy some Russian and Caucasian food. This is a classic former Soviet-style restaurant in Beijing that has been open for over a decade. It mostly serves merchants from Russian-speaking regions who come to Yabaolu to source goods. Its Chinese name used to be Ruilin, but it has been changed to Ruilin.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, many traders (daoye) took green-skinned trains to Beijing and headed straight to Yabaolu to stock up on goods. They brought down jackets, leather shoes, toys, and other small items back home to sell for huge profits. Yabaolu gradually grew from street stalls and tents into Beijing's largest wholesale market for Russian-speaking regions, and more former Soviet-style restaurants opened up on nearby Ritan Upper Street. Over a decade ago, Ritan Upper Street was mainly home to Central Asian and Azerbaijani restaurants, including Uzbek and Kazakh spots.
Over the last decade, Russia's economic decline, the shift of markets to places like Yiwu, Guangzhou, and Suifenhe, and the rise of cross-border e-commerce have caused trade with Russia on Yabaolu to shrink. Yitan Shangjie has gradually become a hub for Uyghur restaurants. Besides Dardanelles and Desert Rose, which focus on Turkish food, the only other Azerbaijani restaurant is Ruilin. For Central Asian food, there is the Turkmenistan restaurant Merv downstairs, which also serves Russian dishes.
At first, Ruilin had dim lighting, making it a good spot for traders to talk business, but many Chinese people were afraid to go inside. In recent years, the lighting at Ruilin has become brighter, but when we visited, there were only Russian-speaking customers, and we did not see any other Chinese people eating there.
We ordered borscht (hongcaitang), pot-stewed lamb (manguan yangrou), chive pancakes (jiucaibing), Azerbaijani pilaf (zhuafan), and grilled vegetables. Their borscht is closer to the Russian style than the one at Merv. Merv's beef soup has a stronger flavor, while their version has a more intense beet taste, which is also quite good.
